Blab Web

In my last video post, about Keeping Consistency Throughout Your Blog, I mentioned that you should be dynamic with your blog and not just passive, which will really set you apart from other similar blogs like yours. A reader asked me if I would expand upon the thought of being dynamic, so I made another video about how I would approach being different from other blogs.




Also, Let me know what you think of video posts. (Like them, dislike them, etc.)

I see an importance of branding one's self along with branding a venture equally. I wrote a post on Venture Level a few days ago and thought it would be a great read for all of you.

The Following Post was originally posted at Venture Level; A Content Partner and has been re-posted with permission.




Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook or Facebook founded by Mark Zuckerberg? It is a question of branding one’s self or their empire. Personally, I’ve had this experience before. I have been a part of ventures, but when I sell them, I am no longer associated with them and there is no brand for myself, just the business. In the business world, companies are well known, but the people behind them are not as well known. So why do you need to brand yourself and how do you do it?

Originally when Facebook launched, Mark Zuckerberg used to have a tag on the bottom of each page that went something like “A Mark Zuckerberg Production.” This definitely spiked the curiosity of who Mark Zuckerberg was as Facebook grew. Facebook being his first large venture, many who know Mark today, did not know him in the pre-Facebook era. Today he has a brand not only connected to Facebook, but he has a self-branded image out in the world as well.

It is important to brand yourself not only as whom you are, but what ventures you are a part of. I was previously involved with some online ventures, that I played a small role in, but did not brand myself as a part of them. The connections made through a venture can be connections that you can use in the future with other ventures that you may be involved in. Once you create your own brand, people will look for where you are involved in other ventures, not the other way around.

Creating a LinkedIn profile is wonderful to help you create your own identity online, while networking with others at the same time. Unlike Facebook or MySpace, it’s more of a professional social network. There are straight forward connections to each person’s industry, showing who they work for, kind of like an online resume. LinkedIn is the best professional social network out there, which is why it has the most users out of any other professional social network. If I had to recommend one social network to anyone for networking, it would be LinkedIn.

Making your own website is also a phenomenal way to brand yourself. People have access to (YourName).com over the web, which you can turn into a blog about yourself or a website that explains what you are involved in. Some people even redirect their name to their about section of another one of their websites. Sometimes, your name might not be available, in which case you might want to try hyphening your name and see if that works. Creating a website can be awesome, but you should always remember to keep it professional and try to go for a different look or concept that what others do. For example, Neil Patel has a unique website NeilPatel.com which has a different concept, than any site I have seen, of walking visitors through who “Neil Patel” is.

Creating your own name- as your brand is always great, but you should try to stay away from naming products after your name. Sometimes people create a blog off of their name and brand off of that. I don’t like to personally take this approach because I feel it is less creative. Both of my blogs have unique names, instead of having RomilPatel.com as a blog URL. Blab Web is known as its own brand as well as Venture Level known as its own brand. RomilPatel.com is known as my brand, but I am known as the founder of all the brands. I think an independent URL expresses a sense of a unique brand image for that particular blog. Having a "FirstNameLastName" blog, can give yourself an name in the world, but I feel that it is best to come up with unique names for blogs because it gives a sense of bold style.
(I don't know what I want to currently do with RomilPatel.com, but I'm thinking about making it into a personal type of blog.)

I was reading a pretty interesting question on my Q & Blab from a reader asking me how to keep coming up with consistency through blog posts. I made a video about how I think it is the best way to approach future blog posts, with the same consistency as posts that were done 6 months ago. It is important to keep the consistency (for the most part) to keep readers around. The reason why I say for the most part is because many bloggers like to incorporate personal issues on their blogs (like just for fun posts), which I believe is okay to do once in awhile. Right?

Anyways, check out the video and let me know your ideas on keeping posts consistent.

Often times people ask me why I post my titles in the forms of questions. The simple answer to that is because people like to read more about topics when it is something they are questioning. The other big reason why I post my titles in the form of questions is because it is a big winner in search traffic. I’m not a big SEO kind of guy, but it is one of the things I do to help boost search traffic.

Grabbing a reader’s attention is the most important thing to a blogger. Nobody will force themselves to read something if the title of a post is weak. People usually will crave reading something that is elegantly titled. This is why questioning your readers is really helpful. For example, if I titled this post “Do You Want Search Traffic?” it might really grab any blogger’s attention really easily. There are also other options like posting questions in the form of asking them in first person. For example, “How Do I Attract Search Traffic To My Blog?” It is really interesting because you will probably gain not only search traffic, but when people read your title’s they might think that you are asking them about the topic, instead of thinking they will find information for that topic. Most people read these kinds of posts because it is a post where they can share their thoughts and engage in a conversation with the blogger. I had titled a post previously called “What Should I Post About?” and I was definitely attracting search engine traffic in addition to traffic where people thought I was asking them what I should post about. Some readers even said to me that it was interesting how I leveraged traffic, by asking a question, but it showed that the post was read by many.

Another awesome way to gain search traffic is by posting about relevant topics in which you think people will be searching for in the near future. For example, if the super bowl is coming up I would post about it in a question format like this “Who Is Going To The Super Bowl?” I would talk about who I think is going to play in the super bowl and go elaborate on it. It would be bound to gain search traffic because football fans always are into finding out about who other people think will go to the super bowl.

There are some bloggers who start blogs around current issue topics or events. Many of these kinds of blogs are targeted highly by search traffic because they cover various topics in a shorter amount of time. Most of the information on the blog is news type information, but some blogs created around events can do really well. If you have a blog that has to do with basketball season, it will probably be highly read during the time up until the NBA finals, but afterwords, if more news type information was wrote about, people might not visit it organically, but it will probably continue to get search traffic. There are many people who start blogs for the Olympics. Obviously, not many people would read it when the Olympics are not going on, but there would probably be numerous people who read each and every post during the Olympics. You never know the bloggers who blog about these topics might rack up enough traffic to create a large stream of income. Most of the bloggers who blog on such topics probably have other blogs and start short term blogs for just some extra fun (and maybe income too!)

Short-term blogs are focused on really specific niches. The chance for a short term blog gaining a lot of attention, in less time, is higher than a regular blog because of the blog’s focus on a specific niche.

If you could blog on a specific niche, what would it be?

Congratulations Suzanne Franco!

Suzanne Franco of www.suzannefranco.com has won a FREE blog review, by participating in the blog review giveaway!

Suzanne blogs about money making online ideas. Her blog is quite different than many other "lets make money" blogs. Most money making online blogs out there, have the same general information that makes them all the same, but Suzanne puts more of a personal touch into her blog. Her concepts and ideas are explained in vast detail and she really explains what she is talking about so her readers get a clear picture on how to approach monetizing online.

Aside from the blog itself, Suzanne puts a lot of work into promoting her blog, especially for the Blogging Idol. I actually came across her blog when she first started marketing her blog for the contest and have seen her subscribers jump from a couple hundred to currently over 600 RSS subscribers.

Suzanne talks about a variety of topics from different types of affiliate programs to SEO for better performance of marketing campaigns. Although her posts are into quite detail, I'd like to see more updates, but I'm assuming she has been busy with the promotion of the whole Blogging Idol contest.

Here are a few words from Suzanne Franco:

Through my suzannefranco.com blog I hope to help others who would like to make money online. In particular I’d like to welcome those who are new to the blogging world (or the internet in general) to a “safe” place where they can learn by asking questions without being embarrassed or “flamed ” … hopefully creating a community of friends who come together to help each other grow their online businesses.

Go check out her blog at www.SuzanneFranco.com and see for yourself, that she puts a different and creative approach to money making online than other money making online blogs out there.

Many small bloggers have problems when it comes to advertising revenue. A lot of the big bloggers get offers from advertisers without moving one finger, but how can a smaller blogger get that same flow of cash from advertisers? The one thing you have to do is WANT it. I saw a video by Gary Vaynerchuk a little while ago and I think it would really help those of you that are struggling with trying to come up with advertisement revenue. For those who do not know Gary, he is the guy behind Wine Library TV, has been featured on numerous TV shows and he really knows his stuff. Check out the video below and you will get a better grasp on how to approach advertisers for your blog.

One of the biggest issues with blogging, is writer's block. Lets face it, we've all been through it at sometime or another as a blogger. Some face it more often than others. I've always told my readers that the best way to come up with new ideas to blog about is asking your readers. They will tell you want they want to read about on your blog, stimulating some ideas for you to talk about. Some ideas that your readers give you may or may not be something you wish to write about, but it can't hurt to ask, right?

You ask: "How do I get readers to tell me what they want to hear?"
This is quite simple, first you want to be straight up about it. Ask your readers about what they want to hear if they follow you on Twitter. You can also change your "contact" page with an email address and ask people to send suggestions about topics they want you to write about. Adding a contact box to your blog may also be appropriate, if you want to bring in suggestions. Now you might be thinking, "I've implemented these ways already" or "They are not so effective" and I agree with you. Sometimes readers are lazy and do not feel like typing up an email and sending it to a blogger with a suggestion for a topic. Often times people might not see your tweet asking for suggestions, so they might be worthless (but, it is still an awesome way to converse!)

A very effective way...
Since one of the most frequent questions people ask me is "How do I come up with topics to write about," I'm going to tell you that readers of a blog can help the blogger together. I don't know if you have noticed the "Suggestions?" button on the left side of my blog yet or not, but I encourage you to click on it. You will see that a window pops up asking you to suggest a topic. Here is a screenshot:


Skribit.com enables bloggers to embed a widget into blogs that enable readers to help suggest topics to the blogger. Not only can readers suggest topics to the blogger, but other readers can help vote topics up. For example, If someone asked me, "How Can I Cure Writers Block?" and 10 other readers liked the question, they would be able to vote it up. As the blogger, I would notice that a lot of people are interested in finding out the answer to that question, so I would think about writing a post on it, since it would be of value to many. This way it is easy for bloggers to really "find out" what people really want to read about.

Here is a screenshot of how the suggestions are shown:


As you can see, all the suggestions line up on the left, and on the right there is a box if someone wants to suggest a new topic. I think the whole concept of Skribit is amazing because everyone can see what others want to know, eliminating duplicate questions and enabling people to make particular questions obvious to the blogger, helping them really focus on what people care about reading.

Skribit also offers widgets for bloggers to embed in their blogs, to make the suggestion box more obvious, than subtle. Take a look at the widget:


Skribit also helps you embed links or flares into your feed for more exposure for people who don't visit your blog and just read through RSS. I think that anyone who has frequent writer's block, should look into using Skribit or any other type of suggestion tool. I know that UserVoice also helps webmasters get feedback about blogs or websites. They have a pretty unique type of platform as well. Both platforms also send out emails, so you always know when there is a new suggestion or comment from your readers.

You may have noticed that lately, I have not been posting EVERY SINGLE DAY. I know, I know, I used to post every day, but lately I have been experimenting with posting every other day, unless I have something really important to say, then I post. I’ve been getting emails asking me

“Is it necessary to post every day?”

My answer to that would be:

“It really depends on your blog, some blogs need to have a new post daily, in order to retain traffic, and some do not.”

The reason why I say it depends on your particular blog is because if you are running more of a technology-news blog, nobody will come to read information that has been posted all over the web a week ago. Since there is so much technology news to update people on practically every day, I would say if you want to keep up with TechCrunch, you might want to post daily!

I have not personally seen any change in blog traffic from when I used to post everyday to now, when I post about 5 times a week or so. On the other hand, I see my RSS readership has gone up since I started posting less often. I think the logic behind this would be that people don’t have to check back every day, so they just subscribe and have content delivered to them instead of checking back. But the fact that my traffic has not taken a dip might negate that particular fact. Unless, I am getting new traffic and the RSS subscribers have just lessened their visits to the blog. Experiments like these, can always tell you what you need to know. No book or resource would be able to tell me the consequence of not posting daily. The best advice I would be able to give as far as posting or not posting daily is to test it out. Change up your posting schedule, see if there are any changes in traffic and go from there.

I have noticed that the comments left on my blog have also increased since I started posting less. I think it gives more time for readers to soak in the content, then reading something and moving on to the next post instead of actually thinking about what I am saying. Personally, I think content is more valuable to a blog when readers actually soak their minds into it.

If you are running a new blog, less than six months and about a couple hundred posts old, I would say that you might want to look into keeping up daily posts, because you are just breaking in your blog. If you have been posting for a good six months, you might want to ease back, if you feel it fits. Since new blogs are working on growing readership, you will always be growing and seeing new traffic flow in. The new visitors will want to see new posts, in order for them to stick around. If they don’t see the blog being updated every day, they might not feel like following the blog.

I have a blog that I started a few months after I started this one, called Venture Level, where I talk about entrepreneurship and business, which I don’t update as nearly as often as I do this one. The traffic on that one has been pretty consistent, but it also gets more search engine traffic. I am currently studying the blog stats and experimenting with that blog as well.

I hope this helps break down some information for you and your blog. While posting daily is not a must, it might be advantageous in some cases. Remember there are A- List bloggers who don’t post daily and there are some that do post daily, so there is no “right-formula!”

You have probably come across blogs or websites that swamp reader with advertisements, when you thought to yourself, that you would never come back to that site. There are some pretty interesting ways people are monetizing the web today. For example I wrote a post about how Loren Feldman monetizes his live streams a few days ago.

Even I have some pretty slick advertisement methods up my sleeve. I recently started having “sponsors” for my default Facebook profile picture, where I take an picture of myself with a sponsors logo for $99 and keep it my default Facebook profile picture for a week. If you want to look more into this “AD-VENTURE” of mine, check out the Facebook group I made and join it! You can probably look forward to some interesting and maybe amusing pictures of myself in the group…tell your friends about it!


Some other maybe “not so advantageous” ways to monetize for people out there are dealing with Twitter. I don’t know how many of you have heard about selling your background to an advertiser on TwittAd, but if you do you can make some dough off of that valuable space in your background. I prefer not to sell my background space on my Twitter profile because it is a sense of branding, instead I put my logo on my background. I suggest you have a custom background, if you do not already, to make yourself or your brand stand out from a regular Twitter profile.


Another far-fetched way to monetize your Twitter profile, is to sell-Tweets. Yes, selling your tweets. Be-a-Magpie allows Twitter users to sell one advertisement tweet for every five regular tweets. I don't think I would sign up for this ad network myself because it would probably result in losing followers over a period of time and I am not too sure about how good the ROI is.


Another advertisement method that is largely debated over are paid reviews. Many blogs out there write paid reviews for different products or services. A lot of these paid reviews are not the "real" deal because they are made to be sound that the product is actually better than it really is. PayPerPost has a service where bloggers can sign up and write reviews on their blogs which then in turn PayPerPost pays the blogger a certain amount of dollars for each review. The prices can vary per review. Sometimes it just seems paid reviews take over some blogs though. A method that I wouldn't sign up for, but I do a review products if I actually think they are worthy of a review on my blog.

In Social Media, there are numerous ways of monetizing, but some are really controversial for people to implement, because it may result in more damage than good. People really need to ask themselves whether or not it is worth making a few bucks at the cost of a blog's reputation or even worth losing some Twitter followers.

My Questions to You:

"Would you implement any advertisement methods on any of your social media profiles where you may make some money, but lose some of your audience?"

"What's your say on Web 2.0 advertisements?"

About a week ago, I posted a video on how my #1 blogging tip to every blogger is networking. Since then, I wrote a post on Venture Level about where awesome places to effectively network are and I would like to share them with all of you here.

The Following Post was originally posted at Venture Level; A Content Partner and has been re-posted with permission.

Networking goes more for than just blogging, if you want to become well established and known.

“What is key in order for people you network with to care enough to listen to what you have to say?”

Most of the time, people who meet up, will probably exchange business cards or phone numbers and be out of contact for a long period of time. This is probably the most worthless type of networking because there is no follow-up contact, basically making the connection between two individuals virtually worthless. There should always be contact between people you meet, so by keeping touch with them, they are of value to you and vice versa. When there is follow-up discussion with anyone you network with, they will be interested in knowing what you are working on and will look into it. In the long run, you have to get to know people at a personal level, with a personal touch in order to get the most out of networking.

"Where are awesome places to get to know people?"

- Conferences

- Meetings

- Over Social Networks

- Creating a Blog (Web Identity)

- Charity Fundraisers

Depending on what kind of business you are involved in, there may be numerous conferences that you can attend to get to personally interact with other people in your industry. The cost of attending some conferences can be expensive, but there are probably some inexpensive ones in your industry as well. It might take a little research to find the right ones, but you never know what kind of connections you will be able to establish with new people in your industry. You might narrow down conferences to attend, by finding out which key players in your industry are attending and attend the same ones. As a blogger, there are many conferences you can attend like PubCon or BlogWorld, which can help you get to know other bloggers like yourself.

Company or work related meetings can be also another great way to connect with people that you may or may not know already. Even though, you may know of someone working with the same company as yours, you may not have gotten to know them more in detail yet. Meetings are great to find out more about the people you work with; not closely, but in the same company.

Social Networks such as MySpace or Facebook and even microblogging platforms such as Twitter are great place to informally get to know people. Adding a friend to Facebook or MySpace might be if you already have interacted with them previously, so it may not be appropriate in some cases, but following someone in the same industry as you on Twitter, might be the first step to breaking the ground. I wrote a post on how bloggers can actually use Twitter to drive quality traffic to their sites before. Twitter can be great to informally start conversing with numerous people at the same time. Many people might start following you and you can probably get to know them more personally over a period of time. When you already establish connections over social networks, it is much more interesting to talk to the same people when you meet them at conferences.

I don’t know how many of you reading this don’t blog, but creating one can definitely help in identifying you on the web. I originally started blogging because I wanted to create a web identity for myself that people can keep in touch with me over, as well as me being able to share some thoughts. Instead of people getting to know me for a venture that I am involved in, then forgetting me after I sell a venture or move on from it, a blog will always have a connection to me.

Charity fundraisers can be a phenomenal way to converse with people that may or may not be in the same industry as you. Everyone at fundraisers support a cause and it is great to start discussing how the fundraiser is related to each individual. Whether it is through work or a personal connection, most people at fundraisers have a connection or reason for being there. Some of my greatest connections to people have come from fundraisers and I still keep in touch with the people who I’ve met because of fundraisers.

Maybe not all the ways here are for you. I network using all of these ways and find every way extremely useful for creating different types of connections to numerous people. My question to you: “How do you network?” Leave your thoughts on your favorite way to network with others or add any other way of networking you feel works.